Each time, I enter my favourite thrift store, I make a bee line straight to the bags,scarves and shoes. I seldom turn to the left of the store. The household section. By the time I am done going through the racks and rack of clothes, I have to leave to pick up one of the monsters. But something changed my mind. I was randomly clicking on blogs and came upon this Thethriftychicks and specifically this post, made me change my mind.
We had friends coming over for dinner on Sat night. 3 families. NK made a wonderful Rogan Jhosh and briyani. Two of those friends were bringing over sabjis. NK bought chocolate cake for dessert, thus leaving me with nothing to do. Samar was napping, Neil and Ashwina on the computer and Avasha had a Girl Scouts event. So I decided to do a quick run to the thrift store(which turned out to be not so quick because of the downtown Christmas parade,but oh well)
I went in with no expectations. I wanted something to serve the home made snacks, my mom had made and sent from Singapore.I also was on the lookout for 4 cocktail glasses. I have wine glasses(bought from Marshalls, a set of 4 for $12.99 of which 2 have chipped) This is what I found. Hold your breath.
A blue stew pot. $4.99.
I served the snacks in these.
These look like they are matching set but they arent. They were in the different parts of the store the one with the sliver(ish) handle was hiding behing a huge water pitcher. It was marked $4.99 but was 50% off. its a deep purple colour. The matching purple bowl was $2.99 and the candy bowl was $3.99. I served murruku in the square bowl, chivda in the candy bowl and something which is a Singaporean snack and I dont know its name in the one with the handle. I wished I had taken a picture of my dining table last night. I had candles floating and then these elegant serving dishes made everything look so pretty.
99 cents each
Nk thought these were fantastic. They were the expensive, heavy kind.
New in the box unopened candles with river rock holders
Then I wandered over to the candle shelf. And dropped some $$ on candles. These had a original price tag of $14.99 and I bought it fom $1.99. They are tapered and have a wonderful scent. I bought 2-3 more candles to lit in the fireplace.
The blue one was $3.99 and the round one, $2. Ignore the cobwebs, they add character
I have a expensive set of dishes I bought 3 years ago Pfaltzgraff (stupid thing is now also chipped. 2 of the mugs broke and my heart bleds when I think of all the money I have wasted spent over the years) from the mall. I think we paid like $120? The thing is though, we bought it for 4 place settings, so only 4 dinner plates, bowls and cups. I had 6 adults coming(including us would have been 8 adults) I was hoping to find a set of matching 8 plates.I knew that was asking alot from the thrift gods. But maybe the gods were listening and I found these
$1.99 each * 6
They look like the ones found at Ikea for 99 cents but they arent. I just googled the brand and its a BIA brand. I am hoping to find more matching ones at the thrift stores and add to my collection.
At the store, I got into a very interesting conversation with Barbara. She was admiring my snack dish, the one with the handle and we started talking as we got into the line to pay for our purchases. I told her I have 4 kids, I am having a party, blah blah. She commented on my excellent taste. I then told her, Asians dont shop at thrift stores, and my spouse had a problem with it. I also told her I dont like to lie when some one compliments me on something and the next question is where is it from. What should I answer. What does she answer? She first asks the cashier, do you see Indians shopping in here(She was funny) The cashier said nope, not many Indians. and I said, see…I told you., its got to do with face value and they dont like people to think that they cannot afford brand new retail stuff. Then Barbara tells me if anyone asks you where you got your fantastic serving plates tonight, just say at collectibles store.
Now, no one asked me last night(I think they were jealous). But if you were invited to your friend’s house. Upon admiring something and you asked her how much was XYZ(it being a vase, painting, a jewellery she is wearing) she says she paid less than $5 for the very beautiful XYZ at a thrift store, what would be your reaction? Would it be” Oh Why did she have 4 kids if she wanted to shop at a thrift store” or ”Oh my god, I need to make her my bff and find out her secrets” Leave me a comment and let me know.
PS:I forgot to edit the publish thing to set it to publish tomorrow and so its now published on a Sunday but its Monday morning in Asia so we’ll go with that. Also I have big news coming up. Aneela I am NOT PREGNANT. So dont worry too much
